Starting my first workshop..Help.

So, the gallery where I have my worked display is allowing artists to have workshops in the back room. After talking to a friend who's son is in boyscouts about helping him get his photography badge, it got me thinking that I could offer workshops. However I know nothing about doing a workshop. I have never attended one.
Turns out, people are calling the gallery looking for workshops for their children, so thats where I am heading first, to help kids.
Since I mainly shoot the outdoors, I know outdoor workshops should be done outdoors. However, I think the first workshop I'll have in the backroom more so to get my feet wet. And if anyone hates it, they can just leave and not kill me in the middle of the woods somewhere. lol

So, it's going to be a learn the basics workshop since I'll be working with kids, but not sure what to use as a subject to practice shooting. And how much do I charge? How long should the workshop be? Are parents suppose to stay or can they leave their children there?

The ages of the children is unknown. I'm thinking for the first one, ages 5-10. not sure yet, I guess that depends on who is interested.

So if anyone has done any workshops or taught classes, please give me any input.

I would think 5 years old is a little young. I would probably start at 8 or 9 years old and go up. I wouldn't charge a lot for my first one. The first workshop I did was through a local camera club so I only charged 5 bucks a head and I had 16 people show up. I did the workshop on using Proshow Gold. I created my own hand out and showed a finished show. During the workshop, I showed them how to build a show by hooking a laptop up to a projector. I would do something similar if I were you. I think I would concentrate on composition since most will be using point and shoot cameras. Teach them perspective and things like that. I would then set up a more detailed workshop for older kids, say 10 and up to go into DOF, shutter speed and the like. That's my thoughts. I'm sure others will have opinions also.

Thanks, the reason I thought about starting at age 5 is because I received my first camera at age 6. Yea of course I was just snapping pictures around the house etc.. and for a few years now Fisher Price has a digital camera for toddlers. I know kids that young won't understand ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Honestly, I really don't know what to teach them since they all will most likely have point and shoots. Which is fine, gotta start somewhere. I also have to keep in mind, children's attention span is like what... 5mins? lol

I think this would be easier if I started off with maybe teenagers or adults.

There was already a lady who ask how young can children be for the workshops, because she has a 18month old she would like to get in a painting workshop.

Ages 5-10 parents should definitely stay, or it will be an exercise in chaos and herding cats. LOL Sounds Great though! If I lived in the area I could definitely see sending my 8 y/o to something like that.

That age does very good with Hands on, so avoid presentations more than a few minutes long. You don't want to hand over a pricey DSLR to them. So maybe cardboard models of what aperture is. Show them how a lens works (flips the image, can project an image on the wall ect) using a magnifying glass. Cover the basics of exposure maybe by having a dark corner and a bright corner with a few objects to photograph in them if they can bring their own gear. And maybe go over the rule of 3rds which can be done on worksheets or anything else. Those are just what comes to mind first. The possibilities are endless. Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

Cre8tivefix wrote: Ages 5-10 parents should definitely stay, or it will be an exercise in chaos and herding cats. LOL Sounds Great though! If I lived in the area I could definitely see sending my 8 y/o to something like that.

That age does very good with Hands on, so avoid presentations more than a few minutes long. You don't want to hand over a pricey DSLR to them. So maybe cardboard models of what aperture is. Show them how a lens works (flips the image, can project an image on the wall ect) using a magnifying glass. Cover the basics of exposure maybe by having a dark corner and a bright corner with a few objects to photograph in them if they can bring their own gear. And maybe go over the rule of 3rds which can be done on worksheets or anything else. Those are just what comes to mind first. The possibilities are endless. Best of luck and let us know how it goes.

Thanks, I would like to do more hands on, as I know even with my self I am more a hands on type of person. lol I used to have a cardboard camera that was a puzzle. It was a working camera. I should have kept it.

Ideally I would like this to be outside and I suppose I could do that, but the whole point of using the back room for workshops is to get people in to see our art and hopefully buy. The gallery opened in November, so people are still learning that we exist.

As has been said for kids under 8 I would requite parents stay. I think I would focus on composition and get them started early on the rule of thirds and a basic understanding Depth of Field. For rules of thirds you might say take a piece of plexiglass and cut it like a view finder then mark the 1/3 points on it, and use a setup to demonstrate in simple terms how it works. On Depth of field I would just use an object and explain how each f-stop affects how much of that object would be in focus. That would be a simple pointing method. With the younger kids the ISO and shutter speeds would not really work because then you would have the glazed over eyes and they wouldnt absorb it. But the others as visual instruction will keep their minds focused. Also when doing depth of field you can move the kids in closer to the object and have them focus on one spot and see that they only see that spot in focus, then move the object away some and have them focus on the spot and can see more of it is in focus. This will also teach htem how the combination of distance and f-stop affects how the camera sees the world.

I've been a teacher, and ran summer camp programs etc. in the past. In more recent years I've worked with infants and toddlers w/delays, but you could probably find activities for kids. I found some on Crayola's website more geared to making frames or cards w/photos etc., and found this www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Consumer_Products...cts_Center/Creat.htm . There are lots of resources and it would take some planning - the more prepared you are the better it will probably go.

I agree that age range is probably not workable because what would work for K-1 wouldn't work for 10 year olds. Maybe in your area there are summer programs for kids thru art centers, summer day camps, etc. that would have their info. online and you could see how they divide age groups and what their classes involve. The younger the kids the more hands on it would need to be. Sometimes with my 2-3 yr. old groups we'd use Fisher Price cams, or I even took in disposables (kids manage to figure out how to push buttomes on a remote easily enough!).

For younger elem. kids I'd probably do sun prints, use older box cameras where they can open it up and see what's inside and look thru the lens and see the aperture change etc. For 'subjects' I'd gather up a box of fun bright objects that they can get creative with setting up what they want to photograph.Getting outdoors would be fun too if possible, or even having the kids bring in something they want to photograph. If you go with older kids, teens/adults then of course you could teach more about how to use their cameras.

I think it's going to take some planning, you'd need to know how many sessions and what you'd teach each class. Some places have instructors submit all that before they list a workshop. If you're doing this pretty much on your own and just using the center's space, you might need to look into insurance etc. so you're covered if anything happens. And w/kids you'd have to think about supervision, parent permission, restroom breaks, drinks/snacks? (the younger they are, the more you have to consider that type thing!).

Maybe there would be someplace locally that has a class going that you could observe to get some idea what it would be like teaching a class, whether for kids or adults. Maybe you could do a workshop that meets once or twice just for some basics and see how that goes before you get into a longer class.

Thanks everyone for your input and thanks sharon for that in depth post. Everything was very helpful. I don't have kids, although I have nephews, I don't do much "learning" stuff with them to understand how the mind of a child works on the education level.

Kodak (and other companies) may even have some teaching materials you could look over on their website.

For kids I'd make the parents stay, and keep the workshop short (2 hours, no more than 3). Without the parents you are 10% instructor, 90% daycare. Also you'll need to figure out every different point-n-shoot they've got. Hopefully the parents will know their own cameras. I would very quickly cover the basic ideas of the meter, aperture, shutter, and ISO, but not dwell too long on them or go into it too much. Visual examples (slides, Power Point, prints... ) would be good and fast. Then connect those concepts to icon modes: portrait=shallow DOF, landscape=deep DOF, sports=fast shutter, etc... After that I'd mostly cover basic composition (rule of thirds, framing, simple vs cluttered), color, and the different sorts of ways photography can be used to convey ideas. Emphasize the fun of photography. Then go to the local park and shoot for a while, and discuss the pics with the kids. It would be cool if you could look at them on a laptop or tablet instead of the back of the cameras, but that might require an assistant (and a card reader). A slideshow of several pics from each participant would be neat. It could be put online for viewing after the class.

For adults I'd take them to someplace that you like to shoot (but don't mind sharing), and run them through how you go about creating your landscape photographs. The workshop can be a lot longer. At some point they get to wander off and shoot, and again you discuss the photos with them. Answer technical questions as they come up.